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THE FINAL DAYS OF MOE HOWARD

Hi-yo, Satu ay morningrd !

Th e Lone Ran ger in animation!

The Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World of

SERGIO ARAGONÉS!

B. J. THOMAS in one of his final interviews

Get a kung-fu grip on the history of G.I. Joe! TV’s Route 66 • George Maharis interview • Contests You Wanted to Win & more!

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Featuring Andy Mangels • Will Murray • Scott Saavedra • Scott Shaw! • Mark Voger • Michael Eury MAD © EC Publications. G.I. Joe © Hasbro. Lone Ranger © Universal.

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The Crazy Cool Culture We Grew Up With

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Issue #20 May 2022

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Departments

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Retrotorial

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Voger’s Vault of Vintage Varieties Moe Howard’s Final Years

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Columns and Special Features

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Retro Toys GI Joe

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Oddball World of Scott Shaw!

Our Ambassador of Cartooning, Sergio Aragonés

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RetroFad Hot Pants

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Too Much TV Quiz

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RetroFanmail

Retro Interview George Maharis

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Scott Saavedra’s Secret Sanctum Contests You Wanted to Win… But Didn’t

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Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon Route 66

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ReJECTED RetroFan fantasy cover by Scott Saavedra… will return next issue.

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Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning The Lone Ranger

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Retro Music B. J. Thomas RetroFan™ issue 20, May 2022. (ISSN 2576-7224 ) is published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344.

Periodicals postage pending at Raleigh, NC. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to RetroFan, c/o TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614.

Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: RetroFan, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $68 Economy US, $103 International, $29 Digital.

Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Sergio Aragonés cover photograph © Sergio Aragonés. MAD © EC Publications. The Lone Ranger and Tonto © Universal. B. J. Thomas photograph © B. J. Thomas. GI Joe © Hasbro. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2022 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

VOGER’S VAULT OF VINTAGE VARIETIES

Moe’s Final Years

BY MARK VOGER Remember how Superman wore his costume under his Clark Kent clothes, and would run to a phone booth to tear ’em off and become Superman? Moe Howard was kind of like that in his golden years.

Sure, he walked around in grandpa spectacles, a beige turtleneck, and a plaid jacket—practically the uniform of senior citizens in the Seventies. But that neatly parted white hair? On a moment’s notice, Howard could comb it into something more familiar to his generations of fans: a perfect Moe “bowl-cut” hairstyle.

In other words, Howard was always ready to “become Moe”— the eye-poking, face-slapping, belly-punching ringleader of that beloved slapstick trio of yesteryear, the Three Stooges. This was the superpower of the comedic actor born Moses Harry Horwitz (1897–1975) in where else but Brooklyn.

I saw it happen. With my own peepers, I once saw Moe Howard, kindly old man, whip out a comb and transform himself into Moe Howard, Three Stooges boss. On a cloudy, drizzly Saturday afternoon in 1973, Howard made an appearance at an old-fashioned movie theater in Camden County, New Jersey. This was Stooges country. Howard got a hero’s welcome that day.

Despite a dearth of opportunities to work, and the declining health of he and his fellow surviving Stooges, Howard surreptitiously kept his hair in that bowl-cut, but combed to one side, as he had throughout his career. (Did you think Howard went to the fiveand-dime wearing those crazy bangs all those decades?) Howard never really gave up on the Stooges… that is, until shortly before his death at age 77 from lung cancer.

A quick history: Howard was born in the Bensonhurt section of Brooklyn, hence that singular rat-a-tat cadence. In the middle Twenties, he and his big brother Samuel (stage name “Shemp,”

because that’s how their immigrant mama pronounced “Sam”) joined up with frizzy-haired violinist-comic Larry Fine, as the onstage “stooges” of caustic vaudeville star Ted Healy. The foursome made its film debut in “Soup to Nuts” (1930), written by cartoonist Rube Goldberg. When Shemp left the act to go solo in 1932, he was replaced by his and Moe’s little brother, Jerome (stage name “Curly”), whose childlike persona made him a fan-favorite.

Then Healy and his stooges parted ways, with Healy steadily scoring movie roles as a single. In 1934, the newly minted “Three Stooges” made their first of 190 comedy shorts for studio honcho Harry Cohn’s Columbia Pictures. (Meanwhile, Healy’s solo career was cut short with his mysterious, alcohol-exacerbated death in 1937.)

But health woes plagued the trio during their long Columbia run. Due to Curly’s series of strokes beginning in 1946 (which led to his 1952 death at the shockingly young age of 48), he was replaced

by Shemp. Due to Shemp’s sudden death by heart attack in 1955, he was replaced by roly-poly comedian Joe Besser (the guy who, as Howard often pointed out, used the catchphrase “Not so hard”).

But times were changing. In late 1957, after 23 profitable years, Cohn unceremoniously decided not to renew the Stooges’ contract with Columbia.

Blonde, statuesque actress Greta Thyssen—a former Miss Denmark who once doubled for Marilyn Monroe—made three shorts with the Stooges, and was the leading lady in their final

(ABOVE) Moe Howard combs his hair into a perfect Moe “bowl-cut” during an appearance on The Mike Douglas Show (1973). © Mike Douglas Entertainments.

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Voger’s Vault of vintage varieties

Columbia short, “Sappy Bull Fighters” (released 1959). Though Thyssen interacted charmingly with the trio in its swan song, she was not enamored of the Stooges.

“They were fine, yes, but I wasn’t that interested in it,” Thyssen told me in 2010. (The actress died in 2018.) “I didn’t quite understand that those kind of shorts would later be so admired and loved. I didn’t know anything about it, really, to tell you the truth.”

TELEVISION REVIVAL

Their Columbia shorts behind them, the Stooges were washed up.

Until they weren’t.

Howard and Fine engaged yet another “third Stooge,” Joe DeRita (stage name “Curly-Joe”), and the trio carried on, albeit with less-than-spectacular live bookings. Things looked bleak until— cue triumphal music—the still-burgeoning medium of television introduced the Three Stooges to a new generation. Beginning in 1958, Columbia released the 190 shorts to television. The shorts proved to be a surprise hit with children despite, or because of, their plentiful violence, not to mention their sometimes adult themes such as infidelity, alcohol, smoking, and gunplay. (After all, the shorts weren’t initially intended as kiddie fare.)

The Stooges didn’t share in the TV profits, but received a profound career bump. Far from finished, the trio was “hot” again, starring in six movies (feature-length ones this time), singing on musical recordings, and making several appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show—a pinnacle of entertainment success in those days.

The Stooges also lent their likenesses to an animated TV show and, for the second time in their history, a comic-book series.

Most of the Stooges’ Sixties films were produced by Howard’s son-in-law, Norman Maurer, an artist-turned-filmmaker who had history, professionally and familially, with the trio. In 1947, Maurer

(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) Publicity photos of Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Shemp Howard, and Curly Howard.

(LEFT TO RIGHT) Greta Thyssen (a former Miss Denmark), Joe Besser, Larry Fine, and Moe Howard in “Sappy Bull Fighters” (1959), the Stooges’ final Columbia short. (OPPOSITE) Thyssen and Moe in “Sappy Bull Fighters.” © Columbia Pictures.

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RETRO TOYS

GI JOE

BY JOHN MICHLIG

This story begins in the early Nineties.

There are a couple of things you have to understand (and remember) about the early Nineties. This was well before the era of social media and iPhones. There was no internet to speak of. It was much more possible to be oblivious of certain fads and phenomena while still being a relatively “with it” individual.

This might help explain my reaction the day I walked into a shop called The Toy Wizard that my girlfriend (now wife) spotted near her apartment one afternoon. Upon entering, my jaw dropped to the floor.

It was a showroom full of the toys I played with when I was a kid.

Major Matt Mason. Hot Wheels. Model kits. Lego sets. Batmobiles.

And, in a corner of his own, the king of all toys: GI Joe. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. There were soldiers, accessories, a Deep Sea Diver, and even the very same six-wheeled ATV that was my trademark accessory among my neighborhood cohort.

The man behind the counter—the Toy Wizard himself, J. R. Giguere—came closer.

“So, you’re a GI Joe collector?”

That’s when I asked the question that started the engines.

“People collect GI Joes?”

GETTING UP TO SPEED

Truth be told, I had no idea that there was any market for—or interest in—the toys we grew up with. A quick look at the price tags on some of the displayed items made it clear to me that I’d better get my GI Joes and Mego super-heroes out of my parents’ basement before they ended up in a rummage sale.

The darling of Toy Fair 1964, GI Joe—America’s movable fighting man—in his classic Soldier and Sailor variations. © Hasbro. Courtesy of Heritage.

Almost immediately after meeting the Toy Wizard, I wrote my very first article. It was for a new magazine called Baby Boomer Collectibles (this was before persons born on and after 1965—like myself—began identifying as “Generation X”), and, though Major Matt Mason was my topic, I opened by explaining I was a “GI Joe guy.”

Then I learned about an event called Toy Fair in New York. I decided to take a chance—it was my first commercial air flight, my first visit to the Big Apple, and my biggest bluff to date as I talked my way into a media pass to the show.

I made a beeline to the giant Hasbro showroom to listen to their various pitches and promotions. I approached a person wearing a Hasbro nametag (and possessing what I considered suitable gravitas) and asked: “What about GI Joe?” “GI Joe!” he replied, as if awoken from a stupor. “We have big plans and big news ahead —can’t reveal anything yet.” He called over what looked to be a young intern who took down my name and contact info.

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Thirty years after GI Joe’s Toy Fair debut, the GI Joe Convention 1994 was held in New York on board the aircraft carrier Intrepid. Photo courtesy of John Michlig.

both a bit out of our respective elements, we traveled the convention together at times, and sat in on each other’s interviews.

One thing we learned early on was that much of the real “dealer action” takes place at the hotel, in this case the Grand Hyatt.

Business cards and hand-lettered signs are all over the lobby, and doors are flung open on nearly all floors. “Come in! Adventure Team Joe’s Needed! Yo, Joe!” shouted one poster on the 23rd floor.

It was in that room—as I stood next to a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, mind you—that three different people approached bearing issues of Baby Boomer Collectibles magazine with my GI Joe cover story for me to sign. played with as kids. Were they about to bring back the classic, fully articulated man of action, GI Joe? This is when fate stepped in. After a pretty mind-bending experience at Toy Fair (I’m fairly sure Vin Diesel was one of the toy demonstrators), I made it back to LaGuardia and onto my flight home. As luck would have it, I was seated across the aisle from a man with a head of Hi Infidelity-era Kevin Cronin hair, and he was talking to his seatmate about what they’d seen at Toy Fair, and what they might feature in their company’s new toy-collecting magazine.

I introduced myself. It turns out that his employer was Kalmbach Publishing, known worldwide for their magazines about model railroading. They were about to launch a new magazine called Collecting Toys.

And they had an actual travel budget for writers.

AIRCRAFT CARRIER

Things moved quickly. We took a meeting and decided I should go to the just-announced First International GI Joe Collectors Convention in New York, held aboard the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier.

The event was branded as the 30th Salute to GI Joe; this would be my very first foray into the world of corporate-authorized conventions. Hasbro was 100% invested in the event, so it meant that if anything big was going to be announced or hinted at for the GI Joe product line, this would be the place to hear about it first.

Things got interesting my very first day there; I met Pulitzer Prize–winning author Susan Faludi, who wrote Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women. She was preparing a story for Esquire and collecting data for a future book about male aggression that became Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man. As we were 12

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Originally hailing from the collection of Hasbro creative director Don Levine, handcrafted original prototypes for GI Joe’s Soldier and Sailor figures. Yes, that’s a Ken doll enlisted into the Navy for this proto-Joe! © Hasbro. Courtesy of Heritage.

THE ODDBALL WORLD OF SCOTT SHAW!

Our Ambassador of Cartooning

SERGIO ARAGONÉS

BY SCOTT SHAW!

In 1963, the United States discovered the cartoons of Sergio Aragonés, and funnybooks have never been the same.

Sergio’s first piece, “A MAD Look at the U.S. Space Effort,” first appeared in MAD #76 (Jan. 1963.) MAD was already altering my perception of the adult world. I had started reading the then-outrageous magazine with issue #69, only ten months earlier than Sergio’s initial contributions, which really got my attention. It not only included Sergio’s first article for MAD, it also featured tiny cartoons by the new guy lurking in the margins of many pages, replacing the cerebral “Marginal Thinking” written gags in the previous issues.

Sergio’s “Drawn-Out Dramas” were incredibly detailed and always funny; eventually, they became known as “Marginals.” I didn’t realize it at the time, but Sergio also came up (ABOVE) Ladies and gentlemen, our ambassador of cartooning, Señor Sergio Aragonés, in a 2021 photograph in his studio. (INSET) A cartoon from Sergio’s first feature for MAD magazine, “A MAD Look at the U.S. Space Effort,” from MAD #76 (Jan. 1963). Photo courtesy of Sergio Aragonés. © Sergio Aragonés and E.C. Publications, Inc. RETROFAN

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The oddball world of scott shaw!

with that issue’s cover gag and the next two, as well! That was an impressive premiere for a young cartoonist who just arrived in the United States.

By 1972, Sergio had not only become a MAD mainstay, he also became a cartoonist who was recognizable at a glance. His mustache was much fuller than it was when he arrived in New York City a decade earlier and he had grown to be a healthy, handsome, and hip fellow. The fiery glint in his eye showed that Sergio was a man who enjoyed life to its fullest. I can attest to it all, because I first met my friend Sergio at the 1972 San Diego Comic-Con (a.k.a. “San Diego’s West Coast Comic Convention”) at the El Cortez Hotel.

And he intimidated the bejabbers out of me.

The only cartoonists who I personally knew then were my San Diego mentors—generous, kind-hearted men my father’s age or older who had grown children and who wore suits when they visited Comic-Con. The underground cartoonists I’d met were older and more cynical, but not much different than me and my friends.

Why was I intimidated when I first met Sergio? Remember Dos Equis Beer’s “Most Interesting Man in the World”? Well, I had just met the most interesting man in my world. I’d never met an adult remotely as cool and talented as Sergio.

He was very friendly, even after I forced upon Sergio a copy of Ken Krueger’s Gory Stories Quarterly, the first comic my cartoons appeared in. Unlike older cartoonists, Sergio didn’t have a negative view of underground comix—he was only 35 at the time—and wasn’t offended by the gooey star of my story, “The Turd.” Sergio encouraged me to continue my quest for legitimacy in the comics field.

From then on, we saw each other at Comic-Con and similar events.

After he co-founded Los Angeles’ CAPS (Comic Art Professional Society), Sergio and I had more time to get to know each other.

We even conspired to self-publish a funny-animal anthology comic, Wild Animals. It was sidelined by our unforeseen divorces, but eventually was published by Pacific Comics in 1982. We became close pals over the four decades in the meantime.

WHO HE IS AND HOW HE CAME TO BE

Sergio Aragonés Domenech (“Domenech” being the second or maternal family name) was born on September 6, 1937 in Sant Mateu, Castellon, Spain. When he was six months old, the Spanish Civil War forced his mother Isabel and Sergio to relocate to Frejus, on the Vichy side of France, while his father Pascual—who was a medical student —stayed to fight the Fascists. Little Sergio attended pre-school.

“One of my earliest memories is that while I was there, I stole a toy from another child, and I was forced to return it and apologize,” Sergio recalls to RetroFan. Things were very hard for Spanish refugees to survive in France. The French were suspicious and fearful of immigrants due to the influence of WWI hero-turnedtraitor General Philippe Pétain, who was allied with Adolf Hitler.

That made it very difficult to earn a living. Isabel, a master of 24

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(LEFT) Portrait of the artist as a young vaquero.

Sergio Aragonés arrived in Mexico in 1942 at the age of five. (BELOW) Famous for his MAD marginals, his first one actually appeared on schoolwork when he was six (1944). Images courtesy of Sergio Aragonés.

embroidery, sewed burlap bags, while Pascual raised rabbits in a cave to trade for food.

In 1939, Sergio’s father finally joined them. Elisa, Sergio’s younger sister, was born in 1940. “My happiest memory of France is sitting in the bars of my father’s bicycle while he was riding when he reached out and grabbed ahold of a passing truck,” Sergio recalls. “Suddenly, it was like we were flying!” He also recalls crying when his teacher got mad and yelled at another kid named “Sergio” in his class. Then there was this surreal experience: “I was outside playing with a little lead soldier that disappeared in the snow. I started to cry when a soldier appeared, who was probably having memories of his own child. He found my toy and gave it to me.

When I told the story to my mother, she was terrified. The only soldiers around were German soldiers!”

When General Francisco Franco won the Spanish Civil War with the help of Hitler, the anti-Fascists had to escape Spain or perish. The Spanish government, in exile, helped charter ships, and in 1942 the Aragonés family moved to Mexico. During the voyage, their ship was surrounded by German submarines, but fortunately, they escaped without an incident. According to Sergio, “I had more food than I’d had in years! And I was fascinated by one of the other passengers, who was an artist. I loved to watch him painting. And my feet were growing so big while we were aboard the ship, my father took a knife and cut off the toes of my shoes. He told me to tell the kids I’d meet that it was the latest fashion in Europe.” His parents were trying to

The oddball world of scott shaw!

prepare Sergio and Elisa for Mexico and the fact that they were going to once again be strangers and that they would arrive without money. The Mexican government helped the refugees with some money before they could find work.

Since he had been taught French while in France, when his family arrived in Mexico, five-year-old Sergio spoke with a thick French accent. “I was afraid of the kids around the block because of their taunting of my accent and my European-style short pants,” he remembers. “I stayed inside our apartment drawing, reading books about Tarzan, Zorro, and pirates, American comic strips in the newspaper, and doing embroidery.”

Sergio learned embroidery from his mother Doña Isabel, who was taught that art form when she was raised in a nunnery. She taught embroidery and sold blouses to bring in money for the family.

Isabel was a sweet lady and an excellent cook, who once served her specialty, paella, to the “Usual Gang of Idiots” on the 1973 MAD trip to Mexico. “I’ll never forget watching gigantic Jack Davis protectively hold an umbrella over my tiny mother while she was preparing our delicious meal outdoors in the rain.”

Meanwhile, Sergio’s father Pascual sold clothing and advertisements for a living. When he spotted a newspaper ad looking for “extras who don’t look Mexican” for the film The Saint Who Forged a Country (1942), Pascual’s life changed for the better. Pascual was a Spaniard and looked it. Being a film extra became an easy second career.

“He’d say, ‘I just stand there in my costume and I get paid,’” Sergio recalls of his dad. Sergio’s father helped to form the Actors Mexican Guild with Cantinflas, Jorge Negrete, and others. Then he became the representative for the union, a presence in the movie industry to assure compliance with their rules.

His role made Pascual a very popular man who became friends with a number of celebrities. When Pascual realized that

A drawing by George Woodbridge of his friend and fellow MAD “idiot” Sergio Aragonés. Date unknown. © Estate of George Woodbridge. (BELOW) The first published MAD Marginal cartoon.

From MAD #76 (Jan. 1963). © Sergio Aragonés and E.C. Publications, Inc.

production jobs in entertainment paid better than acting gigs, he entered the production end of the industry and became an executive producer. His independent productions included Animas Trujano with Toshiro Mifune and Viva Maria with Brigitte Bardot and Jean Moreau.

Pascual Aragonés died at age 59. “He always hoped that I’d be part of the business,” Sergio says. “I spent a lot of time at the movie studios, watching actors getting make-up applied, getting costumed, sitting for hours memorizing lines on the set, and waiting for their turn to act. I sometimes had to work in the editing room—which always smelled terrible— picking up, hanging, and rewinding strips of film. The only good thing was, when I’d roll up old nitrate film very tightly, it made a wonderful smoky and stinky bomb. My friends really liked to set them off! What my father did in the production end was to make certain that movies stayed within their budgets and juggled where and how to make the movie scenes work. I didn’t want to grow up and do any of that! The only reason I loved being at the movie studio was to play. Since I was the son of Don Pascual, I was allowed to go to the prop building, where I could find anything I needed to let my imagination go. In the cowboy town built on the back lot, I was either the ‘sheriff’ or the ‘bad guy,’ with real guns or rubber ones. I played detective on whatever sets weren’t being used. What a time!”

Sergio’s sister Elisa married actor German Robles and had two children. German was known for his portrayal of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and other monstrous fiends. Unfortunately, those roles stuck in the minds of Mexican theater and moviegoers. “When German starred in the play The Lady of Camellias with Dolores Del Rio, members of the audience would yell, ‘Watch out, Dolores, he’s gonna bite your neck!’”

THE BUDDING CARTOONIST

When the Aragonés family first settled in Mexico City, finances forced them to share their apartment with another family.

Sometimes the parents would take turns babysitting each other’s kids. When they didn’t, Isabel and Pascual would take Elisa and Sergio along with them. “One time, my parents took us to the home of rather successful friends,” Sergio says. “It was a lovely house with large rooms and very white walls. My parents brought along paper and a box of crayons. When I ran out of paper, I couldn’t resist the

Sergio Aragonés’ first comic-book page, drawn at age nine.

Image courtesy of Sergio Aragonés.

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The oddball world of scott shaw!

Joe Giella, Neal Adams, Frank Miller, and Bruce Timm), and Wonder Woman (drawn

by Brian Bolland). This goofy little series also featured artwork from a variety of other artists, but most super-hero fans turned up their noses at it.

In the late Nineties, Sergio and Mark ventured into other new territories, including horror comics, and Dark Horse was happy to publish them. Sergio Aragonés’ Boogeyman (1998) was a four-issue series with a horror-host named Mr. Diggs, narrating short horror tales with EC-style repercussions, but with fun. There were also two spooky one-shots: Sergio Aragonés’ El Dia De Los Muertos (1998), with goofy U.S. tourists intruding on the Mexican Day of the Dead holiday, and Sergio Aragonés’ Blair Witch? (1999), a loose parody of the then-popular film The Blair Witch Project.

Sergio and Mark also worked on Dark Horse’s 1997 one-shot, The Mask: Virtual Surreality [conceived by ye ed, then the (LEFT) Explaining the concept of “plop” in Plop! #1 (Sept.–Oct. 1973). (RIGHT) writer of the Adventures of the Mask comic].

DC Super-Stars presents the Wild and Wacky World of Sergio Aragonés (Apr. 1977).

Sergio Aragonés’ Louder Than Words (Dark TM & © DC Comics.

Horse, 1998) was a six-issue collection of new pantomime gag cartoons. In 2001, Dark Horse published a second six-issue collection, Sergio Aragonés’ Rather than just create another super-hero, why not make fun of Actions Speak. everyone else’s instead?

Collaborating with the “Big Two” publishers, the master cartoonSergio was a huge fan of Matt Groening’s The Simpsons on Fox. ist’s Sergio Aragonés Massacres Marvel and Sergio Aragonés Destroys He’d even walk away from the middle of Thanksgiving dinner so DC were both cover-dated June 1996. Both one-shots featured the he wouldn’t miss a single episode. When Bongo Comics editor unique treat of seeing Sergio’s pencils inked by many of the top Bill Morrison learned of Sergio’s passion for all things Springfield, artists of both publishers. Mark was a big part of the fun, too.

Bill asked him if he’d like to write and draw a story for Bongo’s Having already destroyed super-heroes, in 2000 Sergio and horror anthology, Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror, a four-color Mark set their sights on sci-fi. Sergio Aragonés Stomps Star Wars was replication of The Simpsons’ annual Halloween show. Sergio readily a natural for Dark Horse Comics, holder of the Star Wars license. agreed, and the result was a 13-page story titled “Xt’tapalatakettle’s Sergio easily conquered the task of drawing Dreadnoughts, AT-ATs, Day,” written and drawn by “Sergio Ara’goonie’s,” with dialogue and Airspeeders, but Lucasfilms’ primary concern seemed to be by “Shambling Scott Shaw!,” published in Bart Simpson’s Treehouse that the MAD cartoonist might draw their boss a wee bit too pudgy. (George was fine with it.) Mark did what he always does... or doesn’t.

Mark and Sergio concocted a third approach to funny super-hero stuff. They’d already created their own and then obliterated the super-heroes of two major publishers. The only thing left was to create a cartoony admirer who hung out with realistic super-heroes. It was titled Fanboy, and over six DC Comics issues in 1999, Finster Fanboy met Superman (drawn by Jerry Ordway), Green Lantern (drawn by Gil Kane), the Justice League of America (drawn by Brent Anderson), Sgt. Rock (drawn by Joe Kubert and Russ Heath), Batman (drawn by Dick Sprang, Jim Mooney,

(LEFT) Sergio Aragonés Funnies #1 (July 2011).

(RIGHT) Fanboy #5 (July 1999). © Sergio Aragonés.

Batman TM & © DC Comics.

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WILL MURRAY’S 20TH CENTURY PANOPTICON When viewers recall Route 66, they think of it as a television show that starred Martin Milner and costarred George Maharis. Because Milner received top billing and drove the Chevy Corvette convertible that was a non-speaking cast member, it was universally assumed to be Milner’s show.

But that wasn’t the way it started. The show was actually—if you’ll pardon the expression––a vehicle for Maharis.

“I met this rugged 10th Avenue bruiser named George Maharis,” recalled producer Herbert Leonard. “I liked his style. We used him in Naked City. It was obvious he was star material. But I had no idea what to do with him. So we paid him option money to keep him tied up. Then we came up with Route 66.”

Mararis starred in the first hour-long episode of Leonard’s acclaimed Naked City. In a 1959 episode scripted by Stirling Silliphant, “Four Sweet Corners,” Maharis played Johnny Gary, a discharged veteran who discovers that his kid sister has joined a Hell’s Kitchen shoplifting ring in his absence. He and his Army buddy, Lincoln Ridgeway, played

by Robert Morris, investigate.

In the end, the two hit the road to see what America has to offer them.

This was going to be the jumping off point for Route 66. A writer’s strike delayed shooting five months. In the interim, Morris died unexpectedly as a consequence of an epileptic seizure. He was only 25.

The producers scrambled to replace him. It came down to two actors. They chose experienced Martin Milner over an unknown named Robert Redford. By that time, Leonard and co-producer Silliphant had abandoned the Army-buddy premise. Now, the idea was to follow two footloose young men as they moved around the country, seeking a place to put down roots.

Their working title, The Searchers, was discarded because that had been a recent John Ford Western. So they named the program after the Mother Road, Route 66, which wound from Chicago to Los Angeles. They considered buying the rights to “Get Your Kicks on Route 66,” which Nat King Cole had first recorded, but opted to have Nelson Riddle write a catchy new theme instead. It charted on its own.

The backstory was simple. Tod Stiles and Buz Murdock were young New Yorkers from opposite sides of the tracks. Buz worked for Stiles’ father, who died unexpectedly, leaving Tod broke. Stiles dropped out of Yale and with Murdock hit the road searching for a future they could not imagine, taking up odd jobs along the way, meeting kooky people, and seeing America as it really was in the early Sixties from Tod’s Corvette convertible.

“The Corvette was important in creating the image we wanted,” Silliphant remembered. “It helped to

Get Your Kicks Off

BY WILL MURRAY

George Maharis as Buz Murdock and Martin Milner as Tod Stiles, the handsome actors who revved ladies’ hearts on TV’s road-trip drama, Route 66. © Columbia Pictures Television.

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Will Murray’s 20th Century Panopticon

establish the character of Tod Stiles and Buz Murdock right at the outset. We invested $150,000 in the pilot film before we had a sponsor. The Corvette has been part of the idea from the start.”

Unsurprisingly, Chevrolet agreed to sponsor the show. Tod invariably drove.

Maharis observed, “People are always asking me, ‘How come you never drive the car?’ And I say, ‘Well, it’s supposed to be Marty’s car.’ Then they want to know why he never lets me drive it. No reason.

It’s just written that way.”

In a huge departure for television, the series was shot in actual locations instead of Hollywood backlots, using locals as extras. It was a risky, expensive gamble, but it paid off.

Due to being on location filming Exodus, Maharis wasn’t directly involved until the pilot started shooting in February 1960.

“When I got back from Israel,” he recalled, “they told me to report to Concord, Kentucky. Which is where I met Marty. I had never met him before.

Of course, you get the script, you’re on the set, and there it is.”

ROCKY ROAD

Route 66 suffered production problems from the start. They sought a Mississippi River location for the grim pilot episode, “Black November,” but had to settle for Kentucky’s Ohio River. It almost never snowed there, but a sudden blizzard blew in, forcing production to shut down. Pickup shots were filmed in Los Angeles.

Unavoidably, problems beset the traveling production crew as they moved into the first season. The second episode had Buz and Tod working a shrimp boat in Grand Isle, Louisiana. They began shooting just as the mosquito season started, making for a difficult time. Still in the Gulf of Mexico for the fourth episode–– where the pair took jobs on a floating oil rig––a storm brewed, stranding the crew on the rig.

When they needed a storm, they had to create one of their own.

“One of the things that makes our show unique and successful is its mobility,” commented Milner. “By moving about to different towns and cities, we get sure-fire realism that can’t be duplicated in the studio. Man! When you see a smoking Louisiana bayou on

Publicity photo of Buz (BACK) and Tod (FRONT) in the sleek Chevy Corvette. © Columbia Pictures Television.

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Nelson Riddle’s Route 66 theme song was a hit, both in the U.S. and abroad—and co-star George Maharis also scored success as a singer. © Capitol Records. our show, it’s the real thing. Our fans are aware of that and they like it.”

“It costs a few dollars more,” observed Silliphant, “but it comes off better. When you film on location, everything is more authentic and more believable. The actors feel it, too, and they respond.”

Due to the stresses of traveling between locations, they planned two or three episodes in or around a fixed spot, often airing them several weeks apart.

At the vanguard of this caravan was co-producer and head writer Stirling Silliphant.

“Stirling would pick locations from the map,” revealed Executive in Charge of Production Sam Manners, “interesting places where events were happening, like a big cattle auction in Reno, or a major harvest. Both he and I would visit these places and check them out. Then Stirling, or a writer he chose, would build a story around Tod and Buz in that place.”

“You can’t write a piece about Texas sitting in an office in Hollywood,” explained Silliphant. “You have to get the feel and the smell of the [location].”

“Stirling was one in one million, as far as I was concerned,” praised Maharis. “The guy wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote. I mean, he’d come up with more stuff. And even though a lot of the times you had to cut, there was still plenty of meat on the bone. He was very prolific. And he was also very open. He wrote most of the Route 66s. He had a great imagination, a sense of story, a sense of drama.”

Given the logistics of perpetually scouting fresh locales, Silliphant often fell behind schedule.

“If Stirling had a month to write a script, he’d goof off for three weeks and write it in a week,” remembered Milner. “That was his M.O. There were times when we started the script, and we didn’t know how it ended because Stirling hadn’t written the end yet. I can remember particularly in Cleveland, calling Stirling and saying, ‘How does this thing end? You know, we gotta know what happens here.’ And he’d tell us over the phone.”

It wasn’t long before audiences noticed that none of episodes were shot

RETRO INTERVIEW

At Home with

George Maharis

BY RICK GOLDSCHMIDT

I caught up with Route 66 actor George Maharis at his Beverly Hills home as he was watering his garden on an unusually hot 80-degree January day—January 16, 2021, to be exact. At 93 years old (the internet has his age wrong, at a year younger), he spends his time between the desert and Beverly Hills. He says it’s easier to get around at his desert home and hasn’t been out much due to COVID-19.

These days Maharis spends much of his time painting and golfing, but was happy to take a few moments to chat with me on behalf of RetroFan. RetroFan: The pandemic brings to mind your film, The Satan Bug (1965). That movie is very relevant to what is going on today. Would you like to remake it as COVID-19?

George Maharis: Ha-ha! When I originally got that script, the story had nothing to do with a deadly virus being unleashed on the world. In the original script it was about a bank heist. After the Kennedy assassination, it was changed into the espionage thriller that it was. We shot it in the desert and back then… there was nobody around. The desert was quite deserted.

RF: My late friend and Rankin/Bass composer, Maury Laws, used to say to me, “The Rankin/Bass films weren’t real heavy parts like the roles in Bad Day at Black Rock.” You worked with the director of that film on this! What was that like?

GM: John Sturges! Yes, he was great with male actors, but not so much with actresses. In fact, there was a famous actress hired for The Satan Bug that he ended up firing because he couldn’t get along with her, and then ended up hiring Anne Francis, who was able to make it work. Of course, Anne and I worked together in Route 66. Anne actually appeared in Sturges’ Bad Day at Black Rock (1955).

Pictures Television. Publicity still courtesy of IMDb.com. Maharis photograph courtesy of Geroge Maharis via Rick Goldschmidt.

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RF: A friend of mine gave me an issue of TV Radio Mirror from February 1964. It had the headline on the cover: “Husband accuses George Maharis of Wife-Stealing.” I went on to read the story, and

The Beverly Hillbillies © CBS.

(ABOVE) George Maharis as Buz Murdock in a publicity still from his weekly TV drama, Route 66. (INSET) A recent photo of George. Route 66 © Columbia

RF: Many of the actors in The Satan Bug appeared in Route 66. Was this by design? I noticed James Doohan (Scotty from Star Trek; Rankin/Bass’ Willy McBean & His Magic Machine) and Lee Remick even have small parts in the film.

GM: It was just the way things worked out. I had never worked with Richard Basehart before, so that was fun. But you’re right—Ed Asner, Frank Sutton, Anne, were all people I worked with previously in the series.

it was actually a very sweet story about your friendship with your agent Mimi Weber. The reason I bring this up now, you were red hot at the time and signed to or already filming The Satan Bug. Was Mimi your agent through all of this?

GM: I was with the William Morris Agency originally, and I met Mimi when she worked at MCA. She helped me get some parts early on and we became friends. She parted ways with MCA over some sort of dispute, and I hired her to handle my dealings with Epic/Columbia records. I needed someone to deal with all of that.

Since I was traveling the country with Route 66, I actually flew into New York to record my first album with them in six hours, and then I had to head back to wherever we were filming the series. Things got a bit hectic, and Mimi helped with all of that.

She went through a bad divorce, and her husband named me in all of the legal stuff, but it all got worked out.

RF: I picked up one of your records lately. I am a singer and musician too, and I really liked your style and voice.

GM: Well, thank you. I appreciate that.

RF: Another film I love of yours is Quick!

Before It Melts (1964). Robert Morse did some performances in the Rankin/Bass specials and called me up a few years ago to thank me for my [Rankin/Bass] book and to tell me how special the shows were to him. You and Robert were almost like a comedy team in this film. What was that like?

GM: That was my first starring role in a film, and originally, we were supposed to shoot it in Alaska. There was some sort of an earthquake there, and they ended up doing the snow scenes on sound stages.

Bobby Morse was a pleasure to work with and a real talent. His work in Tru, a 1989 play as Truman Capote, was outstanding. I don’t think he quite got the recognition he deserved.

RF: As far as television went, some of your earliest appearances were in one of my favorite series, Naked City. In fact, you appeared in four episodes prior to landing Route 66 with Herbert B. Leonard.

GM: Yes, I did. The episode “Four Sweet Corners” was sort of a buddy-type pilot episode for Route 66. In fact, when I showed up for Route 66, I was surprised to see Marty [Milner] there, as I thought the

Maharis as a guest on The Judy Garland Show, from a contact sheet of behind-thescenes photos from the short-lived comedy/variety television series. Garland’s program ran on CBS during 1963–1964 but was routinely beaten in the ratings by competitor NBC’s powerhouse Western Bonanza and was cancelled after a single season. Maharis was a guest on episode 4, originally airing on October 20, 1963. © CBS. Courtesy of Heritage.

actor I worked with in Naked City [Robert Morris] was going to be Tod. [See the Will Murray’s column on Route 66 for the full story.—ed.]

My last Naked City was with Eli Wallach, who played a crooked detective, and I played a boxer in “Death of Princess.”

“Fire Island” was a favorite from the first season, as I got to work with Henry Hull and Michael Conrad and the first cast of the series. I played Stroke Strokirch in the episode “The Manhole,” in which I was a real heel. I played a full range of characters, thanks to Stirling and Bert.

Stirling Silliphant was magic to me. I loved his writing!

RF: First thing that comes to mind about Route 66 is, did you ever get to meet Nelson Riddle?

GM: Yes, I did! What a great theme song he did for our series! He told me he based it on an earlier song by Jimmy Dorsey called “Oodles of Noodles.” Of course, he did some

work on Naked City for Bert, along with Billy May, who was also great and worked on all of that big band stuff.

RF: Did you know that “Lizard’s Legs and Owlet’s Wings” [Route 66 S3/Ep 6, original airdate 10/26/62] came out on Blu-ray in 2020 with the commercials, bumpers, and next-week tag?

GM: No, I didn’t realize that. It was such a treat to film that episode at the Chicago O’Hare Inn with Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, and the screen’s Wolf Man, Lon Chaney, Jr. We actually came to Chicago from Utah to film that. From the big outdoors to inside a hotel.

Another thing about shooting around the country back then was that each state and city was drastically different, unlike today. Utah wasn’t anything like Chicago, and I enjoyed that about the series.

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SCOTT SAAVEDRA’S SECRET SANCTUM

Contests You Wanted to Win… But Didn’t

BY SCOTT SAAVEDRA The first contest I recall not winning was a chance for 100 old comic books. Or, if I changed my mind (never), I could choose another prize like 100 straw baskets or 100 pounds of English muffins. The contest was the 1979 edition of the Benson & Hedges 100 Sweepstakes sponsored by the cigarettes of the same name (hence the 100 theme of the contest). For years, Benson & Hedges 100’s advertised themselves as longer than King Size cigarettes, and being longer… well, smoking them could lead to wacky predicaments (beyond the expected health problems). In one such print advertisement, a groovy guy bent his cigarette when he somehow got his love beads caught around it (how the cigarette was supposed to support the love beads is anybody’s guess).

The 100 old comic books was a prize that would not be mine in part because I couldn’t enter the contest. You can’t win if you don’t play (also, the odds are against you). In any event, as a mere lad of but 19 summers, I was too young to participate. It said so in the small print. Always read the small print.

The Benson & Hedges 100’s sweepstakes ran from the Seventies and into the Eighties offering 100 feet, pounds, or other units of a possible prize; some great (100 old comics!) and some deep in the non-great category (100 gallons of sour cream).

Each prize offering was essentially a separate contest and so required a purchase of two packages of B&H 100’s per to enter. © Altria, Inc.

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TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Though the words “contest” and “sweepstakes” are often used interchangeably, the latter is defined as a game of chance, whereas the former is a game of skill. In other words, when I won second place in a patriotic poster contest in sixth grade, it was due to my skill. The first place winner, my younger brother Mark, won due to my father’s skill, since that was who actually produced the top poster. My father has long since passed, and I only mention it now because it’s little stories like these that bring humanity to the otherwise serious business of discussing retro popular culture. Also, I didn’t get the top $10 prize that was due me. You could buy a lot of comic books in 1971 for $10. So, contests… they require skill.

Sweepstakes, on the other hand, are supposed to be a matter of chance. You, me, my younger brother Mark, or anyone can win if luck is with them. The Publishers Clearing House has a very well-known sweepstakes with millions of dollars in prizes that can be won without any particular skill at all (though at one time, the ability to lick stamps was paramount). I actually did win a PCH

Elements of a 1968 sweepstakes mailings for Publishers Clearing House. Courtesy of archive.org/Ted Nelson’s Junk Mail Cartons. prize some years ago, but it happened outside of RetroFan’s Sixties to Eighties time frame and so will go unmentioned here (oh, don’t make a face… it was just a cheap necklace).

Whatever you call them, they are an opportunity for the public to win something. Winning is fun. Playing to win is fun until you discover that you didn’t win, which is—sorry to be a downer—the most likely scenario. For the holder of the contest, whether a charity or business, the upside is increased public interest and, even more important, increased sales. The Benson & Hedges 100’s sweepstakes, according to Promotion magazine (April 15, 1974), created “multi-millions” for the brand over three years.

Winning is fun.

Just as an historical aside: P. T. Barnum created the promotional contest in 1850 to generate interest in the first U.S. appearance of a singer most Americans had never heard perform, Jenny Lind.

To enter, you simply wrote a poem that would be turned into a song to be performed by “the Swedish Nightingale,” as Lind was known. Her American tour was a massive success in part because Americans wanted to hear the winning song performed.

YOU MAY HAVE ALREADY WON

The financial success of the Benson & Hedges promotion was no doubt helped along by the requirement to buy two packages of the cigarettes and send in the wrappers to enter the sweepstakes in the first place. That was how things worked in the Retro Years, as we shall see. But eventually laws were changed, and sweepstakes like the one that Publishers Clearing House ran is part of the reason this change happened.

The Publishers Clearing House is so associated with its promotional Sweepstakes it’s easy to forget that PCH is an actual business. In the days before PCH, magazine subscriptions were sometimes sold door-todoor by individuals working alone or with a team. They were known in the profession as

canvassers. The canvassers made very little money per subscription, so selling in volume was important. A former manager of a canvassing team, Harold Mertz (no relation to Fred), came up with the idea of offering subscriptions for multiple magazines via mail order and, in 1953, created PCH. And that was the business, to sell magazines. Inspired by Reader’s Digest magazine’s success with its sweepstakes, in 1967 Mertz created a sweepstakes for PCH. You could win prizes of 25 cents all the way up to the amount you might win in, say, a patriotic poster contest—ten dollars. Your odds of winning were 1 in 10.

The PCH sweepstakes proved to be very popular and helped Mertz’s company sell more magazines, which, of course, was the goal. The success created a significant competitor, American Family Publishers, and ever-larger prizes. Television ads for the PCH sweepstakes began appearing in 1974. The iconic Prize Patrol that surprises a winner with a giant check full of lots of zeroes was unleashed in 1989. PCH was a direct mailing powerhouse for years, and its sweepstakes and their very optimistic declarations of your chances of winning did end up creating problems for many.

But, as I said, in the Retro Years, the rules were different.

YOU MUST BE THIS TALL TO ENTER

Early comic-book contest from Action Comics #1 (June 1938). TM & © DC Comics.

Comic books actually have a pretty long history of contests. The first issue of Action Comics (June 1938) not only featured Superman’s debut, but a contest that could be entered simply by tearing out a page—per instructions—from the issue’s Chuck Dawson (who?) story, coloring it, and then mailing the finished work in to the publisher. A cash money award of one whole dollar (worth nearly $20 today) was to be given to 25 young entrants. Seeing as how Action Comics #1 is now an astronomically valuable collectible worth up to about four million-plus simoleons, I wonder how many of these treasures are missing Chuck Dawson pages. You would think RETROFAN

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ANDY MANGELS’ RETRO SATURDAY MORNING

The

Pencil art from Filmation’s Tarzan/Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Hour Saturday morning cartoon show. © Universal. Courtesy of Heritage.

Lone Ranger

BY ANDY MANGELS

Welcome back to Andy Mangels’ Retro Saturday Morning, and return with us to the thrilling days of yesteryear! The most famous question of the Old West is, “Who was that masked man?” The most famous hero of the dusty plains is the Lone Ranger, clad in a black mask and carrying a gun loaded with silver bullets. Riding with Tonto, his faithful Indian sidekick, the Lone Ranger fights injustice on his galloping horse Silver, leaving behind a cloud of dust as he lets loose the hearty cry of “Hi-Yo, Silver!” Justice rides again as the “super-heroes” of the Old West battle rustlers, land barons, and thieves, and meet other famous historical heroes… and villains!

Saddle up with us now as we take a look at the two major Lone Ranger animated series, as well as a few oddities along the trail!

ORIGINS OF THE LONE RANGER

No fictional Western hero is as well known as the Lone Ranger, and yet most people are a bit fuzzy as to his actual origins. Where and how were Lone Ranger, Tonto, Silver, and Scout created? And how did they come to the animation world?

The first answer would appear to be simple: The character was created for a radio show on Detroit station WXYZ and is thought to have debuted on January 30, 1933, although several “try-out” episodes had been aired in the previous weeks.

The Lone Ranger characters and story were generally credited to George W. Trendle, WXYZ station owner, and Fran Striker,

although other folks took part in the process, and arguments among historians rage about who contributed what. Research shows that shortly before Christmas 1932, Trendle had a staff meeting to discuss new adventure programs for the station.

Attending was Brace Beemer, then the station manager (and later, one of the Lone Ranger’s voices). Trendle wanted to replace their failing radio shows with a show featuring a mysterious adult hero with altruistic motives, something like Douglas Fairbanks’ Zorro or Robin Hood. Trendle also wanted something kids would love and that the station could license out for the lucrative market of radio premiums. A mask for the character was discussed among the staffers, and various other ideas were thrown out. At a second staff meeting after Christmas, when Trendle mentioned the Texas Rangers, a staffer (reportedly Harold True) suggested the name “Lone Ranger.” Trendle placed a call to Buffalo, New York writer Francis H. Striker to further develop the characters and story… although show director Jim Jewell has stated he was the writer who wrote the earliest scripts, not Striker.

In the main Lone Ranger story—although his origin wouldn’t be told for a few years—Texas Ranger John Reid was ambushed by bad guys (with five fellow Rangers, including his brother, Captain Dan Reid), and only survived thanks to being nursed back to health by Tonto, a Mohawk Indian. Once he was healthy again, Reid donned a domino mask (made of his dead brother’s vest) and RETROFAN

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andy mangels’ retro saturday morning

became a vigilante man-of-mystery, riding his all-white horse Silver and loading his gun with silver bullets. Tonto helped in the mission of justice, astride his own brown American Paint Horse, Scout.

Tonto’s creation was largely ascribed to Striker, though interviews with those involved in production quibble about whether Striker or director Jim Jewell are responsible for Tonto, the silver bullets, and some other elements. One important rule was handed down: the Lone Ranger’s silver bullets were used to wound only, never to kill. As for the Ranger’s cry of “Hi-Yo, Silver, Away!,” director Jewell recalled in 1976 that it came from actor George Seaton being unable to laugh for the opening narration. Alternate takes with “Hi-Yi!” and “Yippee!” were tried, before Jewell suggested the actor boomingly shout the more genteel British expression of “Heigh-Ho!” An immortal catchphrase was soon born.

The series occasionally used Native-American words, though many have stated they have no parallels in real Native languages.

Most significant was the term “kemo sabe,” which was often translated on the show to mean “Trusted Scout” or “Faithful Friend.” In a 1976 interview for the book Who Was That Masked Man? The Story of the Lone Ranger, Jewell said that the word came from a 1915 boys’ camp named Kee Mo Sah Bee at Mullet Lake, Michigan, owned by his father-in-law. Jewell also claimed that he chose the name Tonto based on word other Native Americans would use—Tonto, meaning “wild one”—for a drunken Indian who often visited the boys’ camp. Striker, meanwhile, claimed Tonto’s name came from a Western script he had been working on pre-Lone Ranger.

Tonto was a member of the Potawatomi tribe, but according to online sources, the Citizen Potawatomi Nation have no word similar to “tonto” or meaning “wild one.”

The Lone Ranger radio show (and all later iterations of it in live-action and animation) utilized parts of Gioacchino Rossini’s William Tell Overture as their theme song—though some parts are from Bedrich Smetana’s Die Moldau—and it has become so synonymous with the hero that most people don’t know its original name, preferring instead to call it the “Lone Ranger theme.” Over it, the announcer would intone, “A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty ‘Hi-Yo, Silver!’ The Lone Ranger. ‘Hi-Yo, Silver, away!’ With his faithful Indian companion Tonto, the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains, led the fight for law and order in the early West. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear.”

The year following its debut, The Lone Ranger proved popular enough to go national on the Mutual radio network, which aired adventures each Monday/Wednesday/Friday from 1934 to 1942, before the series moved to ABC radio from 1942 to May 27, 1955.

After 22 years on the radio airwaves, the Lone Ranger and Tonto transitioned to ABC television for a long-running live-action series starring mostly Clayton Moore as the Ranger (though John Hart starred in 26 episodes) and Native-American actor Jay Silverheels as Tonto (Silverheels was of Mohawk and Seneca tribal heritage).

The series ran eight seasons, from September 15, 1949 to September 12, 1957, then continued with weekend network repeats until 1961.

Syndication repeats followed, meaning that The Lone Ranger never really left the air! In all, 221 episodes were produced for television.

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Arcade cards of Lee Powell (the Lone Ranger) and Chief Thundercloud (Tonto) promoting Mutual Broadcasting's The Lone Ranger radio program (1938). (LEFT) The Lone Ranger looking very stylish in an early comic-book apperance from Dell Feature Book #3: Heigh-Yo Silver! The Lone Ranger (1938). (BELOW) Promotional still for the movie The Lone Ranger featuring the beloved stars of the television show, Jay Silverheels (Tonto) and Clayton Moore (the Lone Ranger). © Universal. Courtesy of Heritage.

In its pre-Sixties’ history, the Lone Ranger starred in two Republic movie serials: The Lone Ranger (1938) and The Lone Ranger Rides Again (1939). After the TV series ended, Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels starred in two feature films, The Lone Ranger (1956) and The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold (1958), while CBS put together Return of the Lone Ranger as a 1961 television pilot. Nineteen novels were written featuring the heroes from 1936–1956, 13 Big Little Books were published between 1935–1950, a newspaper comic strip ran from King Features Syndicate from 1938–1971, and

RETRO MUSIC

B. J. Thomas Mighty Clouds of Joy

Singer B. J. Thomas in a professional photo taken shortly before his passing on May 29, 2021. © B. J. Thomas.

BY ROD LABBE I bought my first B. J. Thomas album in 1972: Billy Joe Thomas (Scepter Records), which included his melancholy hit single, “Rock and Roll Lullaby.”

By then, of course, he’d already conquered the music world with “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” a certified phenomenon. Written for the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (20th Century Fox, 1969) by the legendary music team of Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David—and winning a Best Song Oscar, to boot—“Raindrops” played on every radio station, jukebox, and turntable, circa 1969. It transformed B. J. Thomas, country boy, into an international superstar.

Even before “Raindrops” and its subsequent hoopla, B. J. had won me over. I loved “Hooked On a Feeling.”

No, not the “oogachaka” version (which I consider heresy), but the classic “Hooked” from 1968, with soaring vocals that wind and flow like molten gold. Ah, I can hear B. J. now, sweeping me along to an earlier time and place, when life wasn’t quite so complicated.

Billy Joe Thomas is what I consider his finest LP, a startling collaboration bringing together several big names of the day: Carole King, Stevie Wonder, Paul Williams, and Jimmy Webb, among them. I especially enjoyed “A Song for My Brother” (written by Jimmy Webb) and “Happier Than the Morning Sun,” Stevie Wonder’s contribution that deserved a top ten Billboard finish. Stevie also accompanies B. J. on the harmonica.

Tunes as fresh today as they were in ’72.

Yep, B. J. sang the soundtrack of my life back then.

We were young, optimistic, and looking forward to a future that didn’t include such science-fiction concepts as COVID-19 and climate change. I went along for a great ride and would never come down to earth again, even as the years piled on disappointment, triumph, and tragedy.

It’s now 2022. Our world isn’t quite so new, and optimism is a word one encounters mostly in a dictionary.

Still, some things never change, like the chills I get whenever I hear B. J. singing about mighty clouds of joy and rock-and-roll lullabies. It led to my approaching him for an interview, and lo and behold, he consented! We met in early February of 2021, had a great conversation, and both of us knew we’d created something special (RetroFan was our only venue of choice). I immediately started sketching out the perfect introduction.

Imagine my shock when, weeks later, B. J. was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. Not a happy situation. B. J. met the news stoically, taking precious time to thank fans, family, loved ones, and friends for their support in what would undoubtedly be a terrific struggle. His attitude remained positive. “I’m a fighter,” he told me, “but I could use your prayers.”

Heartfelt good wishes from admirers across the globe notwithstanding, Billy Joe Thomas slipped away on May 29, 2021. I received the news with a heavy RETROFAN

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heart. By then, our interview was in editing phase, and a part of me just did not want to continue. I felt only sorrow… and an aching loss that made my soul bleed.

Devastated, I went for a walk. The setting sun was a jumble of blue, yellows, and pinks. And it occurred to me—our paths had crossed for a reason. I’d no right to stop it. I would do my part and help him reach out and touch the people he loved.

So, here we are: B. J.’s last big interview.

Feel them? Those mighty clouds of joy, rolling in?

I sure can.

RetroFan: This is crazy. Am I really about to interview B. J. Thomas, the guy behind “Hooked On a Feeling” and “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head”? Punch me, man, ’cause I gotta be dreamin’!

would you mind terribly if we discussed it first?

BJT: I’d love to. That’s one of my favorites, as well—a very special project near and dear to my heart.

RF: You collaborated with famous songwriters and performers on the disc, like Carole King, Jimmy Webb, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Paul Williams, Stevie Wonder, and even Duane Eddy! What an innovative idea!

BJT: Billy Joe Thomas was the first album of its kind for me. Every song was written by a well-known artist, and if it could be arranged, I recorded with them. Steve Tyrell and Al Gargoni produced. We wanted the Beach Boys to do back-up on “Rock and Roll Lullaby.” Brian Wilson was contacted, we played it for him, and he gave us his blessing.

Some of B. J.’s versatile albums. © B. J. Thomas.

B. J. Thomas: Sounds like you’re a fan from way back, Rod. RF: I most definitely am, B. J. Hardcore and devoted to the max. Spun many a Billy Joe Thomas platter on my rack system [laughs]. And even boogied to them!

BJT: I’m already smiling.

RF: Your music has always been upbeat, and you make it all sound easy… though I know nothing worthwhile comes easily in life.

BJT: No, it doesn’t. My career didn’t just take off, though some people might think otherwise, what with “Raindrops.” There have been many days and nights, before and since, spent worrying and working and going forward against fearsome obstacles.

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RF: But what happened? They’re not on the cut.

BJT: That’s how things are in this business.

Unless you sign a legal, binding contract, agreements often crumble. We flew out to California and met with Brian, but we never got the Beach Boys. Instead, four very accomplished singers did their part, and you can’t even tell. They sounded exactly like the real thing.

RF: You mean Dave Somerville and the Ron Hicklin Singers?

BJT: Those guys, yes. I can’t tell you how pleased we were. Their backing vocals brought everything together, just as we’d envisioned. Beautifully done.

RF: And no one can tell the difference!

Cha-ching! Money saved! How would you rate the album?

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, CLICK THE LINK TO ORDER THIS ISSUE IN PRINT OR DIGITAL FORMAT! BJT: Bar none, Billy Joe Thomas is the best LP I’ve ever done. I’m proud of what my team accomplished. While in California, we recorded with Carole King and John Sebastian, too. Delightful all around… and a hit single didn’t hurt.

RF: Duane Eddy played lead guitar on “Lullaby”! How cool is that?

BJT: Duane’s one of rock and roll’s true pioneers. He contributed a twangy guitar accompaniment, lifting “Rock and Roll Lullaby” to a wholeRETROFAN other level of#20 excellence.

MAD’s maddest artist, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, is profiled! Plus: TV’s Route 66 and an interview with star GEORGE MAHARIS, MOE HOWARD’s final years, catching up with singer B.J. RF: “Happier Than the Mornin’ Sun” by THOMAS, LONE RANGER cartoons, G.I. JOE, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDYB. MANGELS, Stevie Wonder is quintessential J. WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK Thomas.

His harmonica solo defines the VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY. (84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 word “incredible.”

(Digital Edition) $4.99 BJT: Wasn’t he marvelous? Performing alongside an immense talent of Stevie’s caliber made me feel like I’d arrived as an artist. There were at least four number-one songs on that album, by my estimation, but Scepter went bankrupt, a disaster for everyone at their label. We were successful in South America and around the world, but here, everything fell apart.

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RF: Why? BJT: Scepter was a singles company primarily. Even Dionne Warwick and Burt Bacharach, two of their biggest names, struggled with album sales. Scepter just couldn’t or wouldn’t follow through… they never even wanted to press the records! Billy Joe Thomas was a quality production, and we were all extremely disappointed when Scepter dropped the ball.

RF: Is that your genuine birth certificate on the album’s cover?

BJT: [laughing] It is. Now I can’t lie about my age, anymore. I’m 78.

RF: Eh, a whippersnapper.

BJT: I appreciate the compliment! Thank you, Rod. RF: Scepter didn’t pay royalties or issue gold records, I read. Unbelievable.

BJT: Unbelievable, but true. They were always having financial problems. You must be registered with the RIAA [Recording